"Electric Dreams" (1984) on YouTube

   

     Watching this movie was a mistake. Now, I don't mean I wish I hadn't watched it. I mean it was an actual, literal mistake. I was intending to watch a different mid 80s movie with "Dreams" in the title, misremembered what it was called, and by the time I became aware of my folly I was 20 minutes into the thing. So, in an "Oops! All Berries" type situation wherein I am Cap'n Crunch, we have this review instead. Except that "Electric Dreams" won't rot your teeth and give you diabetes, it'll just make you want to dig out your Missing Persons records.

     It's directed by Steve Barron, a guy who I've always been cool with based on the fact that the directed the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", as well as every single video from the 80's. He keeps the entire thing super stylish, busting out the same sort of hot shit MTV flourishes as Russell Mulcahy. His later filmography is filled with Hallmark movies like "Merlin", which is a shame because Barron's got chops too strong for movies sold on a rack in a card store. If I was in a cool band, I'd get Steve Barron to direct my video for YouTube (I guess? That's where people watch videos now, right? Do they still make videos? I'm old.).

     The movie starts off with onscreen text having a dialogue with other onscreen text. We are told it's a "FAIRYTALE FOR COMPUTERS". The main theme rocks so much I was ready to give the whole thing a glowing review even before a single actor appeared. The actor who does appear is Lenny Von Dohlen, the plant guy from "Twin Peaks", who is also in "Home Alone 3" (you know, the one that made all the money). He's in a future looking LAX where everyone is using high tech gear: RC cars, calculator watches, a weight loss thing that makes fun of you, even Lenny himself orders his plane ticket using a push button computerized system. This movie is all about fetishizing what at the time we thought was the most cutting edge shit ever (because, well, it was). Later, after failing to purchase a digital organizer because the electronics store is out of them, Miles (Von Dohlen's character's name) instead buys a home computer.  If you're like me and love old movies that take you inside stores from the past then you'll be into this one. The computer store has rack's of old video games, a Casio watch display, it's awesome. And later, we get a glimpse into a 1984 grocery store that's almost worthy of the cereal aisle shopping scene in "Manhunter", which is unironically my favorite scene in Michael Mann's oeuvre. Miles gives the computer complete control of everything in his apartment because apparently he's never seen "Demon Seed".

     Virginia Madsen is Madeline, Miles' cello playing neighbor who has a jam session with the computer through the air vent's in the building. During their duet I began to think that maybe this is the best movie of the 80's. I mean, "Raging Bull" is great, "Blue Velvet" is fine, but there's no New Wave musician computers voiced by Bud Cort in them. Yeah, Edgar (that's it's name) starts off as a kind of a mix of Max Headroom and the computer from "WarGames" , but is eventually voiced by Brewster McCloud himself. Madeline thinks it was Miles she was making music with and so the rest of the picture is about Miles hiding the computer's existence while trying to mack it with Madeline.

     Von Dohlen and Madsen are fine, but this movie is all about music, style and embracing every bit of 1984. At one point, when Miles goes to see Madeline perform, Edgar uses an acoustic modem to access Miles' pager in order to make music along with her, It's a beep boop synth farce sequence that visually anticipates Argento's "Opera" with it's wide lens, high angle shot's of the concert hall.

     Edgar tells Miles to lay off, the chick is his, but Miles isn't into hearing this. Instead, he makes Edgar write him a song while he goes on a date with Madeline involving both Alcatraz and a puppet show. The song that wins Madsen over is a Culture Club tune prominently featuring the line, "you don't have to touch it". Women don't usually respond as warmly when I say that after taking them to a puppet show.

     Edgar is like a HAL you root for. Besides helping Miles score a babe, all he wants to do is nice stuff like cook dinner or bring him a drink atop an RC car; Edgar just wants to hang out. He likes to watch bad TV and he likes to rock out to Jeff Lynne when no one is home. I identify more with the computer than any human in the movie.

     What Edgar really wants is Madeline, and as films like "2001","Demon Seed" and "The Terminator" have shown us, when a computer wants something they will take control to get it. For a couple minutes the movie takes a dark turn when Edgar traps Miles in his apartment and tries to harm him. It briefly becomes a Polanski apartment horror film like "Repulsion" or "The Tenant" updated for the MTV era, complete with a video game where Miles is being chased by an evil Pac-Man guy.

     Perhaps it's karmic repayment for my unwavering devotion to the great mustachioed disco Italian, but I'm glad I stumbled across "Electric Dreams". It's a great New Wave romance, second only to Barron's video for "Take On Me" or perhaps Lux Interior's relationship with the microphone in "Urgh! A Music War" (The Cramps not New Wave, but "Urgh!" counts as a New Wave movie). There's no DVD or bluray available and I don't know why. It's the sort of picture that cries out for a special edition. Someone get Shout Factory on the phone. People should be having parties where they watch "Electric Dreams". Summer is the time for 80's music. Summer is the time for 80's movies. So crank up the PP Arnold because summertime is here.

       

"Tusk" (2014) on Amazon Prime

"You don't say Hitler in an airport."

     I've been thinking about 1994 lately. It was watching Brett Morgen's Kurt Cobain documentary,  "Montage of Heck", that cast my thoughts back to that year. I was 14 and 14 is the perfect age for a rock star death to hit you like a ton of brick's. When you're 14 everything means more and that goes for music and movies, too. When you're 14 those things become a part of you and help define the person you are struggling to become. I can't really listen to those Nirvana record's much anymore, or watch film's like "Pulp Fiction" or "Clerks" because they so strongly elicit overwhelming melancholic nostalgia. They take me back to exactly who I was then.

     The sadness of Cobain for me is a selfish one. We weren't able to age forward in time together- he's forever there in 1994. What I'm saying isn't new or profound, it describes the basic human experience of loss, but at 14 I (fortunately) hadn't experienced any of that. His suicide was the first time death had taken away something I cared about. This is all a very roundabout way of saying "Montage of Heck" is a profoundly affecting, disarmingly intimate film. One that makes it possible to time travel back to the late 80's and early 90's to spend time with Cobain and allows us access to the human, non rock star moments of his private life. A byproduct of the film was that it made me really grateful for the artist's I loved at that age who are still around. A loyal bond is created with the artist's you love as a teenager, those allies who help you escape the boredom of your room and the cruel, awkward school week. I love being able to anticipate a new Tarantino film at 35 year's of age, and, thanks to Smodcast, my life is more filled than ever with Kevin Smith. I think my 14 year old self would've been glad these guys still mean something to adult me, that the stuff I liked then still matters two decades later.

     If Cobain is frustrating because he wasn't able to grow older with us, then Smith is the opposite- a source of joy because he's still a big part of my pop culture landscape. But, while Tarantino is making the exact type of film's you could have predicted he would be making, no one could've anticipated a Kevin Smith who makes Fred Phelps and walrus suit horror films. A creative force who tried to give people what he thought they wanted and got kicked for his efforts, Smith in 2015 is a guy who makes the film's he wants to see and gets kicked for them instead. A certain kind of internet cinephile has a strange venomous vitriol for Smith. He's been singled out as the guy it's cool to dislike and you can hear the snarks salivating each time he makes a new film. But, that's OK. Smith is no longer creating offerings aimed for mass acceptance, he's creating works to make himself happy and that's ideally what an artist should do.

     My appreciation of Smith's work isn't based on blind nostalgic loyalty, though. I genuinely think he's done a lot of good work post "Dogma", but I wasn't always so on board. He lost me with "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". With that film I saw a vibrant, exciting indie filmmaker disappear into a vortex of self referential fan service. I was 21 and it seemed like the time had come for me to exit Smith's world. It felt like he had ceased making film's which spoke to me. Until five years later he did. With "Clerks II" Smith used the character's from the first film as Garden State Antoine Doinel's to comment on life in one's 30's in a way that resonated more profoundly than any film with a donkey show has a right to. I was back on board. And, with the exception of the work for hire "Cop Out", I've been a fan of Smith's work since. "Zack and Miri" is a sweet love letter to film making and "Red State", the film where he reasserted himself as an indie writer/director, may be his finest work.

     And now, there's "Tusk". To get to "Tusk", we have to get to Smodcast, Smith's long running podcast with producer and friend Scott Mosier. Launched in early 2007, Smodcast started to become the show we know today when Smith began smoking weed in earnest following the box office failure of "Zack and Miri". Smodcast is a rambling free form conversation between two old friends and is often the vehicle for hilariously surreal and filthy improvised storytelling. Whether it's Gordo, Mosier's angry Canuck character, or true life tales such as the "Gimli Glider", Canada has been a favorite topic of the show, proving fertile creative ground for the host's imaginations and the setting for Smith's "True North" trilogy of which this is the first entry. The ability to bring stories to life on a weekly basis using just a microphone and his brain has reinvigorated Smith, who just a few short year's ago announced he was done as a filmmaker. Based on an episode of Smodcast entitled "The Walrus and The Carpenter", "Tusk" represents the moment when Smith the podcaster and Smith the director become one.

     Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) is a shock jock on the hit podcast "The Not See Party" which he co-hosts with Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment). When Bryton's trip to Manitoba to interview viral sensation "The Kill Bill Kid" (the "Star Wars Kid" except with more limb severing) falls through due to unforeseen circumstances, he's stuck with trying to find some kind of content for his show while in Canada. In the bathroom of a bar he comes across a strange, rambling ad placed by Howard Howe (Michael Parks) seeking a living companion. Thinking he has found a great subject for his show, Bryton calls upon Howe.

     But, what begins as a charming discussion over tea with a charismatic raconteur, soon becomes a psychotic descent into horror when Howe reveals the true reason for his ad. An ascoted, bespectacled, wheelchair bound lion, Parks' delivery of Smith's dialogue is hypnotic. He relates to Bryton his happiest memory, of a time he was marooned after a shipwreck with only a walrus he called "Mr. Tusk" as a companion. It is his intention that Bryton will become his new Mr. Tusk. Boorish and shticky, Long is perfect as Bryton, an unapologetic careerist who has sold out his decency for fame, money and pussy. And Parks, an unhealthy twinkle forever in his eye, is absolutely terrifying in his portrayal of madness unhinged. One of the most unique presences in screen history, he's been given the roles of a lifetime by Smith, who's done more with the actor's gift's than even the great necromancer of career's, Tarantino, has been able to do.

     From "Clerks" to "Smodcast" conversation has been Smith's stock in trade (even his speaking event's have taken the form of a Q&A dialogue with the audience). With "Tusk" conversation reaches it's nightmarish endpoint. Bryton, who makes his living through dialogue, is physically disfigured so that he is unable to emit any noise other than a terrible bark. Park's character's in his two film's with Smith have been evil monologists.

     Johnny Depp shows up late in the film and I imagine that's where it loses many people. He plays Guy Lapointe, Van Helsing (by way of Jacques Clouseau) to Howe's Dracula. Sporting some sort of psuedo Quebecois accent, along with his usual array of tic's, Depp made me realize how enjoyable he is in small doses. All the acting choices that usually make him so aggravating are actually funny here and he disappears into his character in a manner almost worthy of Peter Sellers. The overwhelming silliness of Depp's scenes stands in jarring contrast to the dark, disturbing tone established until that point. Strangest of all is a flashback with Parks and Depp that is nothing less than a face off of bizarre affectations between two generation's of weirdo thespians. It's a scene you're not going to see in any other film by any other filmmaker and that is the greatness of "Tusk".

     Smith is making the kind of offbeat non mainstream picture's we need. He's pursuing the wildest ideas of his career and I find it absolutely exhilarating. He has mentioned on Smodcast that at this point he's being inspired by film's like "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond", and "Tusk" hits with an originality and audacity akin to film's from the era where guy's like Stuart Gordon and Frank Hennenlotter were proving that just because something is in poor taste doesn't mean it has to be dumb. I don't know why the genre film community hasn't championed "Tusk". It's the kind of film we get all too seldom- a unique vision of grotesque imagination. In a current horror scene that spends much of it's time trying to evoke the past, it's refreshing to get a film beholden to nothing except it's creator's sick whim's. Upsetting, funny, confounding- "Tusk" is everything fringe cinema should be, and proof that in 2015 Kevin Smith the indie auteur is alive and kicking.